Ghosts and Spunkies

Haunted by the ghosts of children and hanged rebels The ghosts of hanged rebel soldiers and “Spunkies” or "Will-o’-the Wisps" (unbaptized
children) were widely believed to haunt the wastes and moors of Clayhidon and
other remote parts of the Blackdown Hills, according to an academic study.Stories of lost souls wandering the hills were common and bandits
and thieves traded on local superstition and fear to move through the landscape
unchallenged, says Lucy Ryder.She writes about the “haunted” Hemyock road between Broad Street in
Clayhidon and Churchinford in a 227-page thesis, Change and Continuity: a Study in the Historic Landscape of Devon, submitted
to the University
of Exeter and available
online.This road runs along the former common of Ridgewood at
Bolham Water, which was “the haunting grounds of ghosts, demons and other
spirits, and much of the supernatural encounters occurred either at night or as
the mist comes in”.A report of the Western Circuit in 1690 described the “bewitching”
of Jacob Seley en route to Taunton
after an evening at a public house. Mr. Seley told the judge that he had been
set upon by the ghosts of “Monmouth’s Men… hang’d on the sign post”, and that
the ghosts went on to steal his horse.It was thought he had been told the stories of hauntings by
locals in the pub over dinner (and no doubt a few drinks), and that the thieves
had followed him from the inn to trade in on his fear.“It is known that many men from the local communities joined
the Monmouth rebel army in 1685and camped on Luppitt Common,” writes Ms Ryder. “Local
stories state that many of these men were executed on Black Down Common which
lies on the border with Hemyock in Uffculme. Thus it was thought that these men
still wandered the commons trying to get home.”